Passionate about motor sports since childhood due to his father’s influence, São Paulo driver Lucas Moraes, 36, participated in his first motocross race at the age of four. A hip injury, however, forced him to abandon racing on two wheels at the beginning of his professional career.
Frustrated at no longer being able to compete and looking for new opportunities, the heir to the Votorantim group then left, in his early 20s, for a period of studies focused on technology in Silicon Valley, California.
The phase in the United States fueled Moraes’ entrepreneurial streak, with the founding, in mid-2016, of fintech Olivia, together with partner Cristiano Oliveira.
The app, which aimed to help Brazilians better deal with personal finances using artificial intelligence, was sold to Nubank in 2021.
With the sale of the business and return to Brazil, he began to participate, at first only recreationally, in rally events — his father, Marcos Moraes, was responsible for organizing the traditional Rali dos Sertões for almost 30 years.
In 2019, when he hadn’t even thought about pursuing his career as an off-road pilot as a profession, he ended up becoming the Sertões champion, alongside navigator Kaique Bentivoglio.
The victory would be repeated in 2022, and again in 2024. A year before his third championship, Moraes had already made history for Brazilian motorsport by taking third place in the Dakar Rally, the category’s main race — he became the first driver in the country to reach the podium.
In a meteoric rise, in October 2025, Moraes won the world rally title in the W2RC category for Toyota, beating the big favorite Nasser Al-Attiyah, from Qatar.
“What crossed my mind at the time was a great sense of pride in being able to represent Brazil,” said Moraes in an interview with Sheet in one of Votorantim’s offices, in Itaim Bibi, in São Paulo.
Considered the F1 of off-road races, with cars reaching speeds of up to 170 km/h on irregular and potholed dirt tracks, Moraes will defend his title this year racing for the manufacturer Dacia, with Al-Attiyah as his teammate.
He emphasizes, however, that the main objective set for the coming years is to reach first place in the Dakar.
“After I reached the podium, the Dakar became an obsession. The podium is cool, third place was spectacular, in my first participation, the best result in Brazil, I was the youngest to reach the podium. But I’m still third, so I have to try to reach the top”, said Moraes.
In the 2026 edition, the Brazilian finished the Dakar competition in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, in seventh place. The victory was for Al-Attiyah.
“The Dakar pushes everyone involved to an extreme limit,” said Moraes about the 14-day race that covers almost 8,000 kilometers.
“You really need to overcome yourself from time to time during the race, which is what I think makes the Dakar such a great event and a dream for many people. This issue of seeing your limit and trying to push yourself a little further is very interesting,” said the driver.
Although today immersed in the world of rallying, Moraes still maintains a presence in the financial market — he recently made contributions to Outfield, an investment platform focused on sports, and zMatch, an electric car subscription company.
“My cycle as an entrepreneur closed at Olivia, when we made the transaction with Nubank”, he stated. “I would say I’m more on the other side of the table, in the sense of being more of an investor than an entrepreneur. For me, entrepreneurship is the most difficult sport in the world,” added Moraes.
He also said he believes that his history as an entrepreneur contributes to the success he has had in rally events.
“Being a high-performance athlete is a very faithful portrait of what it means to be an entrepreneur. You need to have critical thinking, think about strategy, execution, one thing complements the other. Sport portrays a lot of entrepreneurship and vice versa.”
Using AI tools to monitor performance in tests, Moras also stated that he sees new technology as an ally that can take humans to a new level.
“When machines went to the production line in factories, humans had to go to a higher level. I think with AI it could be something similar. What is the next step that humans can achieve in terms of performance, productivity? I think it will be a more productive, faster world and, of course, it will also require adaptation, sophistication from the human being.”
